Northern Twixfest/Shitefest 12/13th July '25 - Wrap-up

[loserone]

6 minutes ago, RobT said:

The Sunday drive

I really had better get on with planning a route!

[RobT]

Anywhere will be better than the congested roads I'm used to!

[tooSavvy]

9 hours ago, loserone said:

I really had better get on with planning a route!

Scots Gap / Rothbury 😮👀

🚙💨

[loserone]

As a first draft I'm proposing something like this:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZuFC7Wbc9zfV9rtQ6

 

I've messaged the heritage centre in Bellingham to see if they might accommodate us, this would leave a figure  of 8 run out and those with inappropriate vehicles, weak bladders and of a nervous disposition can sit in a railway carriage and drink tea.  Edit: yes, we can. Anyone who wants afternoon tea should book a table in the carriage!

 

Please note that the full route includes a toll road (the Kielder Forest Drive) which is a fiver (card payments only) and is a well maintained gravel track, but is not suitable for low cars (so, @gm, bring the Jag not the Exocet.)

[JMotor]

Providing it doesn't piss down with rain. I'll take a trip across for the weekend.

Might do the same as @RobT and stay at a B&B nearby. Got fack all camping gear and I ain't kipping in the motor.

[loserone]

Right.  Lisa is going to email me a menu and some other details for the railway carriages in Bellingham should folk want to incorporate that into the run.  Hence the current suggestion is that there's a FULL RUN, and two HALF RUNS.

With any luck the afternoon teas will not result in any other runs.

The FULL RUN for Sunday the 13th of July looks a bit like this:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bvUNjnLqmDhwxnEy6

You'll notice it looks a bit like a figure of eight.  That's because it's a full 75 miles of lunacy.  

Leaving the Twixfest base of Fourstones at around 11am, head north to Bellingham Heritage Centre for ~1130.  There there is lots of parking, coffee, food, and other facilities which will seem like a metropolis after @Schaefft's field.  There's a museum, which is PAY AS YE FEEL.   Bellingham has some nice pubs too.  Some folk will likely stay here for an extended lunch / afternoon etc.  Some may actually arrive here having not met previously at Fourstones.  Others will head out on the northern loop, past Falstone to the start of the Forest Drive, which is a £5 card payment only toll road, 12 miles of gravel track through Kielder Forest.  At the end of this there are a couple of options but the fastest is the A68 back down to Bellingham to pick up all the folk left there.  Finally, a run back home to Fourstones via Redesmouth adds interest to the return journey.

Note that this is alongside Kielder water, which means there is a not insignificant chance of midges.  

All attendees as usual will receive a MYSTERY GIFT which isn't a fake twix.   Best of all, everyone's a winner at something even if it's having the shittest car, and the prizes are FAKE TWIXES.

 

Edit: Obviously the two options for half runs are to do Fourstones - Bellingham - Fourstones, or to meet us in Bellingham around 1130 and do the northern loop.  

[loserone]

Also, divvnt forget there's a whatsapp group.  I can send an invite link or chuck me (or @Schaefft or @GeordieInExile or @Sunny Jim) a mobile number and I'll add you.

[Schaefft]

It's actually not the 13th of May as that would requiring traveling back in time! But should you be available on the 13th of July then please join in on the fun above, we still got spaced available (we have space for 2000 cars after all...).

[loserone]

9 minutes ago, loserone said:

Others will head out on the northern loop, past Falstone to the start of the Forest Drive, which is a £5 card payment only toll road, 12 miles of gravel track through Kielder Forest.  At the end of this there are a couple of options but the fastest is the A68 back down to Bellingham to pick up all the folk left there. 

Anyone feeling particularly put out by this gravel track can simply carry on past and take the next road VIA A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.

I can actually recommend this, this road is a cracking drive.

 

[gm]

30 minutes ago, loserone said:

Forest Drive, which is a £5 card payment only toll road

am i the only one thinking…

some kind of geordie Nurburgring ? 

[brownnova]

The Toon-bergring

 

Edit to add: Or for the fully paid up member of the black and white army the Toon-Burn-ring. 

[hairnet]

if ya turnz oop wi less than 4 wheels do ya get bummed at kielder?

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, hairnet said:

if ya turnz oop wi less than 4 wheels do ya get bummed at kielder?

Almost all the videos on YouTube are bikes, 4x4s, rally cars or older stuff 

 

I can't comment on the anal, sorry.

[tooSavvy]

Kielder gravel road....

Done it many years ago.

#1.. YES it's Chunkie Gravel

#2.. IF in convoy >> windscreen*risk damage HIGH

#3.. SPEED = no paint left on sills 🫤

# Convoy + Speed = BAD!! #

WCPGW 🚀

🚙💨

[loserone]

Yeah, we may be rallying with a big gap.  Or tootling slowly. 

Here's the menu from the heritage centre 

 

"Morning Mike, I have attached the menu. I have informed the tea on the train manager of your visit. Ideally could the guests call on 01434 221 151 and book a table in the next week to allow for staffing and catering of the party. And if they would like to choose from the menu in advance that would help us enormously. Many thanks. Lisa"

Certainly I reckon on getting a bacon butty at the least.

[tooSavvy]

Whitrope tunnel/rail exhibits....

Whitrope Siding - Wikipedia https://share.google/VNyQR1tsY9ewnnY8F

For rail buffs, among us....

🚙💨

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Whitrope tunnel/rail exhibits....

Whitrope Siding - Wikipedia https://share.google/VNyQR1tsY9ewnnY8F

For rail buffs, among us....

🚙💨

I have suggested this as a potential a few times in the past, for some reason it seems to go down like a lead balloon.  I really love the road down to there and on to Hermitage Castle.  

I'd come along though.

[hairnet]

kielder say theres 15 mph limit on the track

so if you did the long way round instead youd prolly meet each other at cottonshope/byrness

[tooSavvy]

33 minutes ago, hairnet said:

kielder say theres 15 mph limit on the track

so if you did the long way round instead youd prolly meet each other at cottonshope/byrness

I would give the gravel a *swerve.... 🙄

Lovely run up to the top of the valley.... See the trackbed and dismantled bridges/cuttings of the old railway 👍

🚙💨

[davidfowler2000]

37 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

I would give the gravel a *swerve.... 🙄

Lovely run up to the top of the valley.... See the trackbed and dismantled bridges/cuttings of the old railway 👍

🚙💨

I too also am considering the via Scotland loop

[catsinthewelder]

I'm up for a hoon on the gravel, most of the paint has already fallen off my sills!

[loserone]

Does anyone have a drone? Some of the route should be pretty spectacular 

[dome]

I'm a tentative yes to making a day trip down and back on the Saturday from deepest, darkest Fife. 

[loserone]

I've just bought a drone with the hope of taking some pics of this and then roffling off afterwards.  Fingers crossed!

 

Drone pics only on the Sunday mind..  

[loserone]

22 hours ago, loserone said:

I've just bought a drone

Which turned out to be out of stock.

 

However, this morning 

 

[hairnet]

vinheteiro no??

[loserone]

31 minutes ago, hairnet said:

vinheteiro no??

No.

 

[tooSavvy]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Which turned out to be out of stock.

 

However, this morning 

 

I got a stonking deal on *OneBuy.... needless to say, 'stonking deal = click bait' and after paying [... and waiting] it was *misplaced @dispatch 🙄.

Cash refunded OK

Bummer 🫤

🚙💨

[Sunny Jim]

4 hours ago, loserone said:

No.

 

Overstrung? Either you or the piano or possibly both.

[loserone]

Amazingly neither; the piano was between a half and a full tone out across the whole thing.  I've tuned it twice to "close enough for jazz" and it seems to be staying.  Next pass I'll try to get it as close as I can